Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a degenerative disorder characterized by the progressive degeneration of dopamine-containing cells in substantia nigra, and it is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder worldwide. It can be difficult to differentiate between idiopathic PD and Atypical Parkinsonian syndromes (APS). In a high percentage of APS patients, the right diagnosis is not established even during late stages of the disease. Currently there is no specific test to verify PD, especially in the early stages of the disease.
The aim was to verify if 123I-FP-CIT, DaTSCAN ® can differentiate early stages of Parkinson's disease as well as patients with Atypical Parkinsonian syndromes from manifest Parkinson's disease.
Materials and methods: 121 consecutive patients were investigated with 123I-FP-CIT SPECT, during a four year period. All patients were diagnosed according to the established consensus criteria for diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (PD), (n=53), Atypical Parkinsonian syndromes (APS) (n=18). Remaining patients were grouped early PD (before onset the of L-dopa medication), (n=20), and non-PD syndromes (n=30). SPECT images were analysed visually according to a predefined ranking scale of dopaminergic degeneration, distinguishing a posterior-anterior degeneration pattern (egg shape) to a more global and severe degeneration pattern (burst striatum). Striatum ratios were quantitatively analysed with the 3D software, EXINI.
Results: In the group of APS patients the burst striatum pattern was most frequent and found in 61% (11/18 patients). In PD patients the egg shape pattern was dominating, especially in early PD where it was present in 95% (19/20 patients). The sensitivity of burst striatum degeneration pattern was 61% (95%-CI 36-83%), specificity 90% (95%-CI 81-96%). The sensitivity of egg shape pattern was 74% (95%-CI 62-84%), specificity 90% (95%-CI 47-90%). The uptake ratios were reduced in both PD and APS patients and closely related to the image pattern. The lowest putamen/caudate ratio was found in early PD.
Conclusion: In this study we found that in more than half of the patients it was possible to differentiate between PD and APS by visual interpretation only. Similar results were obtained using semi-quantitative uptake ratios, but combining visual assessment with uptake ratios did not add to the discriminating power of DATSCAN ® SPECT in this material
References: Kahraman D, Eggers C, Schicha H, Timmermann L, Schmidt M. Visual assessment of dopaminergic degeneration pattern in 123I-FP-CIT SPECT differentiates patients with atypical parkinsonian syndromes and idiopathic Parkinson's disease. J Neurol. 2012;259:251-60